Where The Newspaper Stands

Here's a quiz. The terms "environmental time bombs" and "floating garbage dumps" were in the news recently. Could these phrases apply to:

A. The kind of tanker that spilled oil off the coast of Spain?

B. The James River Reserve Fleet, aka the ghost fleet?

C. Both of the above?

D. Neither of the above?

The answer is C.

European Union officials have used these terms to describe thousands of old-style tankers that pose the danger of oil spills in European waters. The latest incident: A tanker spilled, according to some estimates, 1.5 million gallons of oil and fuel into the Atlantic off the coast of Spain this week. A storm caused the tanker to break apart, spewing tar- like goop into the ocean, threatening 185 miles of shoreline and rich fishing grounds, killing wildlife and spoiling beaches. Another 18.5 million gallons of oil went to the ocean floor in the sinking hull.

The terms "environmental time bombs" and "floating garbage dumps" apply just as well to many of the 100 vessels Uncle Sam has tied up in the James River.

Leaks aren't uncommon at the reserve fleet -- eight occurred between 1998 and 2000 -- so another one is a pretty sure bet. Corroded hulls can give way, storms can knock ships into each other or break their lines and, as we learned last summer, passing vessels can knock them loose. Tropical Storm Floyd pulled 30 ships from their moorings.

But unlike the accident causing so much damage in Spain, a leak from a reserve ship wouldn't be out in ocean waters, but in the narrow James River. If a storm cracked just two ships open, the resulting oil spill could spread along 50 miles of shoreline, threatening wetlands and marshes, nature sanctuaries and prime oyster and clam beds, not to mention the water intake pipe for the Surry nuclear power plant. Cleanup could cost $45 million.

Lurking within the hulls of the ghost fleet are nearly 8 million gallons of fuel and oil, an environmental time bomb if there ever was one. There is also asbestos, lead paint and PCBs. "Floating garbage dump" applies, but "floating toxic dump" is more accurate.

The $20 million appropriated in the federal budget for the current year will only fund removal of at most 10 vessels. It will take many more years to get rid of the 70 hulks that need to go -- years in which storms bear down on the river and hulls continue to rust.

The government got rid of only 10 ships in the last four years. If Congress and the Maritime Administration don't start making the reserve fleet a priority, someday the picture on newspaper front pages of birds smothered in oil and beaches covered in goo could be from the James River and not a cove in Spain.

In need of fixin'

Define a viable tax system; state doesn't have it

So you think you have it bad?

Consider the travails of rural taxpayers in China. The Financial Times did just that in a recent article, which examined one 63-year-old farmer in the central province of Henan. His one-hectare (roughly 21/2 acres) plot of tired soil yields whatever living he can get out of it.

And it's not much: about $242 a year. Before taxes. Very before taxes.

First the farmer pays taxes for village maintenance, for the "public interest" and for the administrative overhead of the local communist bosses.

Then there are fees. The FT says there's "one for the education of village children, one for local charities, one for the training of the local militia, one for road repairs and one for family planning."

Oh, yeah, and then there's an "agriculture tax," a "water tax" and an "education fund-raising tax." To top it all off -- the insult to all insults -- there's a service fee to finance the collection of all the fees and taxes.

In the end, the farmer is left with little to show for his labor.

And if you listen to some of the tax opponents in Virginia, we're pretty much headed in the same direction. Middle Kingdom here we come.

That's hardly so. Virginia remains one of the least tax oppressive states in the Union.

Still, there's a smart way and a dumb way to go about taxation, and Virginia has been rolling down Dim Bulb Boulevard for a while now. Not only are state and local taxes skewed in such a way as to favor one (the state) to the disadvantage of the other (localities), but a vast array of special breaks, in the form of deductions, subtractions and exemptions, have proliferated beyond all reason and any semblance of justice.

In fact if you know anything about airline tickets (some pay much, some pay little and everybody pays something different, with nobody understanding why) then you understand the Virginia tax system.

The criteria for a viable tax system centers on its equity, sufficiency, progressivism and acceptability. In other words, taxes must be perceived to be fair, adequate to support public commitments, structured on ability to pay and, within the political system, sustainable.

The car tax, for instance, came under assault largely because it was perceived to be unfair and, in truth, it was seemingly administered at the local level to maximize public anger. So former Gov. Jim Gilmore came along, saw the political opportunity in that anger and made the most of it.

Trouble is, by focusing on one tax in isolation of the entire structure, you're asking for problems -- and problems are what Virginia has experienced ever since Gilmore went out to kill the car tax. He killed the tax (mostly) without resolving the consequences of lost revenue.

And the same thing will happen again -- another cynic at another time will see another political opportunity -- if Virginia does not summon the political will to reform its tax system from stem to stern.

Becoming China is not our threat. Becoming a politically gridlocked state of 7 million people is.